CWE-1320

Base Abstraction Level
Pillar — Highest-level weakness category
Class — Abstract, language-independent
Base — Specific enough to detect
Variant — Tied to specific technology
Compound — Requires multiple weaknesses Draft MITRE CWE Status
Stable — Fully reviewed and complete
Draft — Under development, may change
Incomplete — Partially defined by MITRE
Deprecated — No longer recommended
Obsolete — Replaced by another CWE
Improper Protection for Outbound Error Messages and Alert Signals

Description

Untrusted agents can disable alerts about signal conditions exceeding limits or the response mechanism that handles such alerts.

Hardware sensors are used to detect whether a device is operating within design limits. The threshold values for these limits are set by hardware fuses or trusted software such as a BIOS. Modification of these limits may be protected by hardware mechanisms. When device sensors detect out of bound conditions, alert signals may be generated for remedial action, which may take the form of device shutdown or throttling. Warning signals that are not properly secured may be disabled or used to generate spurious alerts, causing degraded performance or denial-of-service (DoS). These alerts may be masked by untrusted software. Examples of these alerts involve thermal and power sensor alerts.

Consequences

Availability — DoS: Instability, DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart, Reduce Reliability, Unexpected State

Mitigations

Phase: Architecture and Design

Alert signals generated by critical events should be protected from access by untrusted agents. Only hardware or trusted firmware modules should be able to alter the alert configuration.